Hester And Pearl In Nathaniel Hawthorne's 'The Scarlet Letter'

It was Election Day and Dimmesdale was giving his sermon inside the church. This sermon was his most powerful sermon that he had given. As Dimmesdale was inside the church giving his sermon, Hester was standing outside the church next to the scaffold with Pearl. When Dimmesdale finished his sermon, there was a procession to the town hall. However he did not proceed with the procession. He went to climb the scaffold and called Hester and Pearl to join him. Chillingworth tried to stop him because he knew what he was going to do so he said that he could still save him. Dimmesdale brushed him off and continued to climb the scaffold. Malcolm Cowley states, “Facing the crowd he tears open his ministerial band and shows that there is a scarlet A imprinted on his own flesh” (Cowley 16). He exposed his sin because he wanted to be free of his sin and be with Hester and Pearl. This scene also describes Dimmesdale’s dying words and actions. He asked God to forgive Chillingworth and asked if Pearl would kiss him. So Pearl kissed him on the lips. This was significant because it showed that she accepted and forgave him. Hester also asked him if they would ever see each other again, but he does not think they will because of their

While Hester tries to protect Dimmesdale by not giving the name of Pearl's father, she actually condemns him to a long road of

Despite the isolation, Hester supports herself and Pearl with nothing but her inner strength. She is able to deal with the negativity from the townspeople and the local government, and is even able to be honest and compassionate in ways such as acknowledging her sin, keeping the identity of her

Pearl grows up without knowing who her father is. She is asked by her mother if she knows why she wears The Scarlet Letter, and Pearl replies, “Truly I do! It is the same reason that the minister keeps his hand over his heart!”(Hawthorne 157). Hester and Dimmesdale both get outcasted by the community. They both go through the same pain even though no one knows that Dimmesdale is Pearl’s father. She loves Dimmesdale so much that she protects him from the community. Hester tries to protect Dimmesdale from the community because of all the guilt he

When Chillingworth asks Hester the identity of her lover, she refuses to answer. Because of this, Chillingworth makes her promise never to reveal that he is her husband. After Hester is released from prison, she goes to live in a small cottage at the edge of town. After a few years, people begin to notice that her daughter, Pearl, behaves very strangely, and they threaten to take her away from Hester. Hester takes Pearl to Governor Bellingham's mansion planning to plead for the right to keep her daughter. At the mansion she is met by the governor and his three guests, Reverend Wilson, Reverend Dimmesdale, and Roger Chillingworth. Reverend Dimmesdale convinces the governor to allow Hester to keep Pearl. Chillingworth, who has been living with Reverend Dimmesdale since his arrival in town, begins to suspect that Reverend Dimmesdale is the father of Pearl. One evening while Dimmesdale is sleeping, Chillingworth examines Dimmesdale's chest and finds something which confirms his suspicion. From this moment on, Chillingworth devotes himself to seeking revenge. One night, Dimmesdale is so tormented by his conscience that he goes and stands on the scaffold that Hester had stood on seven years earlier. As he is standing there, he sees Hester and Pearl walk by and he calls them onto the scaffold with him. After he acknowledges his guilt to them, a giant red A

Abandoning Hester and her illegitimate daughter Pearl also augmented his problems. Forcing Hester to go and find work around town, an obviously hard task for a single parent.  He also abandons them emotionally and physically. He is rarely there when Hester and Pearl needed him.  Innocent little Pearl wonders why Dimmesdale is so afraid of public displays of affection, yet when they are alone, he takes notice of her and Hester. Talking to him, Pearl asks  "Wilt thou stand here with Mother and me, tomorrow noontide? (149),” a question whose answer is unclear for Pearl. In fact, the only way Hester and Pearl receive any kind of support from Dimmesdale is when Hester threatens to tell the truth about his sins.

Out of fear, Dimmesdale shrieks while contemplating the situation he has been placed in. At this point, Dimmesdale’s guilt grows rapidly, taking a toll on his physical health as he suffers from severe health problems. He is described to be looking as if he is slowing wasting away as he grabs his chest as if his heart aches: “He was often observed to put his hand over his heart, with a flush and then a paleness, indicative of pain” (Hawthorne 169). Dimmesdale becomes so upset and depressed, that he beings to whip and starve himself because he feels he deserves to suffer. The book says, “About this period, however, the health of Mr. Dimmesdale has evidently begun to fail… the paleness of the young minister’s cheek was accounted… in order to keep the grossness of this early state from clogging and obscuring his spiritual lamp” (Hawthorne 109). Hester and Pearl walk up to Dimmesdale on the scaffold where Pearl asks him if he will stand with them at noon. Dimmesdale responds saying that he will stand with them on the great judgement day, foreshadowing a significant scene. Holding the sin inside of him, makes him sick, and even with all his pain, there is a value of truth and irony. Dimmesdale is described as if “there came a glare of red light out of his eyes; as if the old man’s soul were on fire, and kept on smoldering duskily

where seven years since, I should have stood!”3 Beckoning Hester and their child, Pearl, to his

Pearl is the constant reminder of Hester’s sin; however, Pearl also brings Hester extraordinary joy. She is the cause of Hester’s determination to try and create a better life for Pearl and herself. Pearl was also a boundless joy to her biological father, Revered Dimmesdale, in one scene, Pearl grabbed Dimmesdale by the hand and kissed it. This shocked Hester because this was one of the only times that Pearl showed affection to anyone, which brought immense joy to Dimmesdale (Lorcher, Trent). Dimmesdale is known to have committed the same crime as Hester when he clutches his chest constantly and is seen having the marking or the scarlet “A” engraved on his chest. Reverend Dimmesdale’s sin is more permanently proclaimed than Hester’s that is sewn on to her clothes, while his is a tattoo burned on his skin (Analysis: The Red Mark on Dimmesdale’s Chest). It is seen like an outward representation of the sin that is inside him that he is not fully open with (Lorcher, Trent). Pearl is always talking about the “Black Man” and she is referring to Satan and how Dimmesdale wrote his name in the Black Man’s book (Analysis: The Black Man). Hester’s husband, Roger Chillingworth is a symbol of evil and a sort of revenge for Hester (Lorcher, Trent). When Dimmesdale, Pearl and Hester meet on the scaffold one night a meteor streaks across the sky in the shape of a letter “A” and it seems to mean that God has

The townspeople, in shock, sympathize Hester because the unknown adulterer exposes his secret. As Dimmesdale finishes his last words to his true love, he dies in Hester’s arms. Watching Hester lose the love of her life and Pearl lose her father allows others to sympathize them because once again they are left to fend for themselves. The shared feeling between the Puritan town

Pearl understands that Chillingworth has hurt people and says “Come away, mother! Come away, or yonder old Black Man will catch you! He hath got hold of the minister already. Come away, mother, or he will catch you!”(Hawthorn 121) Even though Pearl is young she is very observant and analytical. She sees that Chillingworth has affected how Dimmesdale appearance. This thought of Chillingworth being the devil is shared with the town as well. Later on Hester and Chillingworth have a conversation about how Chillingworth knows the true reason behind all of Dimmesdale's guilt. Hester says that Chillingworth has already done enough to the minister. This causes Chillingworth to retaliate by saying that she deserves to wear the scarlet letter. Hester’s impression on Chillingworth is changed from this moment on to hatred. When Hester and Dimmesdale try to leave town, Chillingworth is right behind them ready to join them to continue torturing Dimmesdale. Before they can leave though Dimmesdale confesses his sin and dies. Due to Dimmesdale dieing, Chillingworth now has no reason to live. All of his life had been based around getting revenge on Dimmesdale, that now he is dead he has no reason to live. His purpose in his

Even though Hester has many other issues on her mind, while she is in the Governor's house, she notices without hesitation Chillingworth's behavior has made a dramatic change. While Dimmesdale and Governor Bellingham are trying to decide Pearl’s fate and where she will remain during her rest of her life. Hester looks at

When Dimmesdale hears this he realizes that he and Hester were not the real wrongdoers here, it was Chillingworth who is guilty of the worst sin. Hester proposes they run away together, with Pearl, back to the Old World. Dimmesdale thinks about how they actually can run away together and that they can actually leave very soon. Inspired, Dimmesdale writes his Election Day sermon, his last sermon. As he gave his speech, everyone was touched by his powerful sermon, even though it was all about Hester and nobody knew. Well, some people might have made the connection, but that’s probably not likely. But eventually, he walked to the scaffold and called Hester and Pearl to him, finally acknowledging them in public and then confessing his

In the Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne vividly portrays the theme sin leads to moral corruption by explicitly describing the temptations Dimmesdale combats after returning from his secret meeting with Hester in the forest. During Dimmesdale’s and Hester’s encounter in the secluded forest, they devise a plan to leave the oppressive Puritan society with their illegitimate child Pearl in hopes of discovering a world where they can live together in peace. The overpowering love they have for each other leads them to conclude that they must leave to Europe. The sinful decision of Dimmesdale to scandalously leave his venerated position as minister in the town and Hester to leave behind her estranged husband corrupt both of their moral characters.

Dimmesdale whips himself to punish himself for his sins, and as his sin grew inside of him and festered there, he became very ill, he started getting very sick, holding his heart even more than usual. Chillingworth one night after Dimmesdale had fallen asleep, sneaks into Dimmesdale’s room, rips open his shirt, and right over his heart, is the Black Man’s mark, the scarlet letter ‘A’. Dimmesdale becomes even more sick as time goes on, Hester and Dimmesdale plan to leave to go to England, but before that happens, Dimmesdale gives his final sermon, which was phenomenal, and as they are leaving the church, Dimmesdale gets onto the scaffold, asks Hester and Pearl to join him “He turned towards the scaffold, and stretched forth his arms. ‘Hester,’ said he, ‘come hither! Come, my little Pearl!’” (Hawthorne 376), as he declares that he is the father and that he loves them. Pearl grants him the kiss he has been wanting/needing from her, and right after, Dimmesdale collapses on the scaffold and dies. Dimmesdale is buried in a tomb and when Hester dies, she is then placed basically beside him, sharing a headstone to mark their love.